Derby Public Library Book Club marks America's 250th at senior center discussion

DERBY - Join Derby Public Library as we continue to celebrate America's 250th Anniversary with our TURNING THE PAGE BOOK CLUB. Our next book discussion on Aug. 5 at Derby Senior Center is about 'The Girl from Greenwich Street' by Lauren Willig.

Based on the true story of a famous trial, this novel is Law and Order: 1800, as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr investigate the shocking murder of a young woman who everyone—and no one—seemed to know.

At the start of a new century, a shocking murder transfixes Manhattan, forcing bitter rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to work together to save a man from the gallows.

Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house—and doesn’t come home. Has she eloped? Run away? No one knows—until her body appears in the Manhattan Well.

Her family insists they know who killed her. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma.

But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor….

Aaron Burr’s legal practice can’t finance both his expensive tastes and his ambition to win the 1800 New York elections. To defend Levi Weeks is a double win: a hefty fee plus a chance to grab headlines.

Alexander Hamilton has his own political aspirations; he isn’t going to let Burr monopolize the public’s attention. If Burr is defending Levi Weeks, then Hamilton will too. As the trial and the election draw near, Burr and Hamilton race against time to save a man’s life—and destroy each other.

Part murder mystery, part thriller, part true crime, The Girl From Greenwich Street revisits a dark corner of history—with a surprising twist ending that reveals the true story of the woman at the center of the tale. 

Shared from the Derby Public Library Facebook page.

Ansonia High School marks Women's History Month with Book of the Week

 

'A Storybook Holiday' awaits at Osborne Homestead Museum in Derby

DERBY - Visit the Osborne Homestead Museum this holiday season and enjoy “A Storybook Holiday.” 
From Aesop’s Fables to The Snow Queen, each room represents the most popular children’s tales in Western literature. 

Tours will run from Nov. 23-Dec. 16 and will be offered Thursdays through Sundays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
From 4-7 p.m. Fridays, Nov. 30, Dec. 7, and 14, the museum will present “Twilight Tours” to display the shimmering glow of the decorations.

For more than 30 years, volunteers have created gorgeous holiday decorations at the museum. 
The volunteers are members of the Derby Garden Society, Derby Neck Library and Hubbell Farm, Garden Club of Orange, Long Hill Garden Club, Naugatuck Garden Club, Olde Ripton Garden Club of Shelton, Jen Plasky of AIFD, Women Redefining Retirement Milford, Woodbridge Garden Club, and Ye Olde Kellogg Garden Club. 

This year’s holiday theme will pay tribute to the Osborne family and children’s literature. The family promoted literacy in various ways. Major Wilbur Osborne along with local teachers and neighbors founded Derby Neck Library at 307 Hawthorne Ave.
Later on Wilbur's daughter Frances Osborne Kellogg became president of the board of directors and donated gifts to the library. 
Frances’ aunt Helen Krehbiel wrote stories and poems with moral lessons. 

Visit the Osborne Homestead Museum and open a page into the wonderful world of “Storybook Holiday”! 
Admission is free; donations are accepted. 
The Osborne Homestead Museum is operated by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. It is located at 500 Hawthorne Ave. 

To register for group tours and for more information, call 203-734-2513 or email donna.kingston@ct.gov.

Community Band to perform 'Story Book' music at Seymour Middle School

Photo shared from Facebook

SEYMOUR - Naugatuck Community Band presents “Story Book” music inspired by literature at 7 p.m. Saturday at Seymour Middle School.

The school is at 211 Mountain Road.

This free concert is sponsored by the Seymour Culture and Arts Commission. Although the concert is free donations will be accepted for the Food Bank. 

For questions please call 203-888-7295.

This information is shared from an online community calendar sponsored by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and The New Haven Independent.

Oxford resident creates 'Bookworm Bottles'

OXFORD - Ever wonder what to do with an empty bottle? 
Resident Kate Mirabella has, and you can see how she used her creativity to make 'Bookworm Bottles' on display at Lizzie's Corner Consignment and Gifts at 19 Bank St. in Seymour.

Mirabella recently started making the literary-themed bottles. 
Her mother, Elizabeth Pisano, opened Lizzie's Corner last month. 
Pisano makes beautifully lit bottles. Her business is "Re-Designed by Elizabeth." I'm happy to say I won one of her creations in October during a raffle on Seymour Pink Day.

Snow White and Rapunzel are in the house! 
Talk about bringing back childhood memories. These labels certainly do that.

And, I must agree with the label at left that says, "It's Always Tea-Time!

The moral of the story is: Go to Lizzie's Corner and check out the crafts and consigned items, including Kate's creative work.

Valley troupe to launch school program next month in Shelton

To present 'As You Like It' to 4th graders

SHELTON - Valley Shakespeare Festival, in cooperation with the Shelton Board of Education in May.

The three-year old, Shelton-based, non-profit theater company is known around the Valley for its free and low cost productions of classic literary works.  

Most notable among them are its free summer outdoor productions of “The Comedy of Errors” (2013) and “Much Ado About Nothing” (2014) which were presented at Shelton’s Veterans Memorial-Riverwalk Park.  

Also popular are its free holiday productions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (at the Shelton History Center in 2013 and at Shelton’s Plumb Memorial Library in 2014) and Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” at the Derby Neck Library this past Valentine’s Day.   

This summer they will present four free performances of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” outdoors at the Park at 8 p.m. July 9-12.

The company’s Education Initiative Program is the brainchild of its Executive and Artistic Director and Shelton native, Tom Simonetti. 

It’s constructed in strict accordance with Shelton’s adopted Common Core Standards and is aimed at renewing students’ interest in, and appreciation for, classic literature through live performance.

The work he has chosen to present to inaugurate the program is Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” a comedy in which four sets of young couples “discover” themselves and their places in a society during their exile in the Forest of Arden.

The program will be presented by a touring cast of eight professional actors. Before viewing the actual performance of the play, students will participate in workshops with these actors who “live and breathe the texts,” as Simonetti puts it.  

“The workshops are extremely important to the experience because these actors know how to present the material in a way which will inspire and instruct the students to not only understand the play and its themes and language, but to learn how to interpret other classical texts and documents by using language and context clues.”  He said he is delighted to bring this fairy tale to life for Shelton’s fourth-graders, but added that, while on the surface it seems a light-hearted story, it deals with very serious and timeless issues which still resonate with young people today. 

“The transformation of these characters from the self-absorbed, selfish, and entitled people they are at court  to the mature, self-aware and tolerant individuals they become in the forest is extremely timely in a culture in which “selfie” is a word in the Webster dictionary,” Simonetti said. 

“Ironically, it is through a jumble of deceptions and disguises that their true selves finally emerge and allow them all to find their happy endings.”

Simonetti has also enlisted the talents of local band member Benny Mikula of “The Alpaca Gnomes,” to compose an original score to accompany the performances, as this is the most musical of all of Shakespeare’s works.

The program will begin its run at the schools the week of May 4, with a free preview for the local community May 2 at the Shelton Community Center gym, 41 Church St.

  

The preview will begin at 1:30 p.m with the workshop; the play will follow at 2 p.m.  Community members can reserve space for the free preview by visiting VSF’s website at www.vsfestival.org or by calling 203-513-9446.

Valley Shakespeare Festival is excited and grateful to the Shelton Board of Education to be the first district in the Valley to embrace this program and hopes that, in the coming years, it will be expanded throughout all grade levels in the system and be adopted by all districts Valley-wide.

This is a press release from Valley Shakespeare Festival, a federally tax-exempt, non-profit theater company dedicated to bringing free Shakespeare to the Lower Naugatuck Valley.